Image of the file courtesy of Sonia Hoque /Reach/CC BY 2.0
Twice a week, Brahasundari, 50, loads a series of buckets onto a scooter, climbs onto a boat and travels three kilometres from her village to buy water. Millions of women in arid and semi-arid regions of South Asia would say she was lucky that they had to walk twice a day. But Brahasundari lives on the coast of Bangladesh, and no matter where you look, there is water in ponds, streams, rivers and wells. It's just that all of this is not drinkable.
Climate change is causing sea levels to rise. The ensuing salt water entered, poisoning the freshwater resources along the entire Coast of South Asia. In Bangladesh, salt water is seeping inland.
So now Laha Sondari travels to a shop where water is pumped, treated and sold from the deep aquifer. The resident of Shyamnagar Sub-district in Satkhira district in southwestern Bangladesh buys 60 litres of water per trip and pays for 30 BDT (US$0.35) for water and 20 BKK (US$0.24) for a scooter. According to the latest official statistics, the monthly expenditure of 400 Bangladeshi taka ($4.72) is more than 10% of the average income of landless agricultural workers in the subregion.
"I never thought I might need to buy water to drink," Lahasundari told The Third Pole. "Earlier, there was a big pond near our house. Everything was ruined by the salt water. The problem of water soars day by day.
Back in 2011, a study led by Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that the salt intake in drinking water of the coastal population of Bangladesh exceeded the recommended limit. Since then, the situation has gotten worse.
Widespread problems
Satkila is one of the 19 coastal areas of Bangladesh and one of the seven regions facing the Bay of Bengal. The coastal strip covers 32% of the country's area; According to the latest census by the Bangladeshi government, more than 35 million people live here.
Many studies have shown that people in coastal areas of Bangladesh are suffering more and more as a result of climate change and salt water intrusion into their water supply.
The World Bank's 2014 report, River Salinity and Climate Change: Evidence from Coastal Bangladesh, predicts that by 2050, climate change will lead to significant changes in river salinity during the october-May dry season in the southwest coastal region. As aquatic ecosystems change, this will lead to shortages of drinking water and irrigation water.
Water business
Across the coastal region of Bangladesh, it has spawned a new business: the sale of drinking water.
Nowadays, the crowd in front of the water shop is a common sight. These stores are usually located where deep aquifers are found to be relatively unspoiled. The water is pumped up, processed at a reverse osmosis (RO) plant behind the store to remove the salt, and then sold.
In the Nakipur neighborhood of Shyamnagar, Shahinur Rahman owns such a shop called the Mausumi Drinking Water Plant. He started his business in 2018 with an initial expense of 600,000 BDT ($7,080). The RO plant can handle 1,000 liters of water per hour. He sells it to 100-150 families per day for 50 paisa ($0.0059) per liter.
"I make 40,000 BKG ($472) a month," Rahman told The Third Pole. "Selling water here is big business. People need it, we're just meeting the demand.
The Shyamnagar subdivision now has 25 RO plants with about 400,000 residents. All the factories are making money – not surprising, as residents have to pay more for water than residents in Dhaka, bangladesh's capital. Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority charges 1,000 litres of water 12 BDTs, while the people of Shyamnagar charge 24 litres of water 12 dinars.
Residents of the capital must install their own water purification systems at home. Still, their drinking water costs many times lower than the people of Shyamnagar, where per capita income is less than half that of a daka.
A 2013 study by the NGO Bangladesh Water Aid said the cost of drinking water in coastal areas was much higher than in Dhaka. The study was conducted in two coastal areas, Satkila and Kurna.
Aftab Opel, who led the study and now works at Vision Spring, another NGO, told The Third Pole, "The private water business along the coast is now thriving. It's increasing every day. The price per liter of water has decreased compared to 2013; But it's still hundreds of times taller than the capital.
Local factors exacerbate the effects of climate change
Commercial shrimp farming, which began off the coast of Bangladesh in the 1980s, has multiplied the saltwater invasion of drinking water sources. Shrimp farmers flood land with salt water because shrimp grow best in salt water. This salt water has seeped into aquifers everywhere.
Dilip Dutta, a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Kurna, said: "Large ponds have become undrinkable due to salt water intrusion. Shrimp traders have not taken any initiative to build new reservoirs. They only care about profits.
In a 2017 study titled "Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts of Shrimp Farming in the Southwest Coastal Region of Bangladesh", Sebak Kumar Saha of the Australian National University said: "High salinity levels of water sources have had a serious negative impact on people's health and well-being due to shrimp farming. The salinization of freshwater supplies due to shrimp farming has led to a shortage of drinking water, as well as water needed for other daily activities such as bathing and cooking.
Health effects
While residents of coastal areas like Shyam Nagar are forced to buy drinking water and water for cooking, they can't afford more. As a result, more and more salt water is used for washing and bathing, with serious health consequences. Skin infections are common, as are urinary tract infections and pelvic inflammatory disease in women. Poor menstrual health is another big problem.
People don't even drink that much water. A 23-year-old resident of Jelekhali village in Shyamnagar district said: "Due to the scarcity of water, I had to make calculations before drinking. She works at a shrimp farm and spends all day in waist-deep salt water. There is no drinking water at her place of work. In 2019, she went to see a local doctor for a urinary tract infection. The doctor told her she wasn't drinking enough water.
Ratna Rani Pal, a worker at Shyamnagar Health Centre, said: "Most female patients come to us with all kinds of reproductive problems. The reason is the lack of care and management of menstrual health.
Shampa Goswami, director of the women's rights group Praerona Nari Unnayan Sangathan in Satkhira's Kaliganj sub-district, said: "Women's lives are at stake here. The intrusion of salt water, climate change and storm after storm have made women's lives miserable.
Riyan Sobhan Talha is a journalist and photographer in Dhaka. He reported on the environment, climate change and the rights of indigenous communities.
This article is provided by The Third Pole and appears here under a Creative Commons license. It can be found here in its original form .
Above: Water insecurity off the coast of Bangladesh (courtesy of Sonia Hoque/REACH/CC BY 2.0)